


in the eye of the beholder

by ironic_boner



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Art, M/M, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-31 03:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10890549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ironic_boner/pseuds/ironic_boner
Summary: In a world where whatever your soulmate draws on their skin shows up on yours too, things get complicated when your soulmate is a tiny lil fucker, or when you’re missing an arm.Or: Five times someone insults Bucky’s soulmate’s art, and one time Steve starts to believe the haters and Bucky has to fix that.





	in the eye of the beholder

The first time Bucky remembers marks showing up on his skin, he’s five. He goes wailing to his mother that he’s turning green, and she explains that no, it’s just that his soulmate dumped some green paint on his hands, and it’s showing up on Bucky, too.

She gives him a pen and tells him he can draw a message back, but not to write anything or tell his soulmate where he is until he’s older.

Bucky draws a heart and some flowers on his left arm, because they’re soulmates so that’s what you do.

Also, because those are easy to draw, and Bucky is a terrible artist.

To make up for it, Bucky's soulmate is the _best_ artist. He's _amazing_. He replies to Bucky’s hearts with a happy giraffe, and Bucky is thrilled and shows everyone who will look. 

Since he’s only five, everyone compliments him copiously.

Except for Rebecca, who snorts and tells him it’s the ugliest thing she’s ever seen.

Bucky says _she’s_ the ugliest thing he’s ever seen, and then he’s the one who gets banished to his room for a time-out.

*

Bucky follows the no-writing rule for the most part, so when he meets Steve, it’s by coincidence, not by arrangement. Steve’s being shoved around by some larger kids who are trying to take his money, and Bucky jumps in even without knowing who he is. They figure it out a few minutes later, though, because they both have the same (amazing) drawings on their arms. Bucky hugs Steve and goes to meet his mom.

*

The next time someone contradicts Bucky's opinions on his soulmate’s art he's in fourth grade and Alice King is bragging about the dog her soulmate drew on their left arms. It's not _terrible_ , but it's definitely not nearly as good as the dragon Steve drew on his own arm at Bucky's suggestion, so Bucky butts in with, “My soulmate is a better artist than yours!” and shows off the dragon.

There's a moment of quiet then Bobby Ellis snorts. “Man, that's awful,” he says.

“What?” Bucky demands. He watched Steve draw the dragon himself and he was spellbound the whole time. Steve's drawings are all _awesome_ and Bobby is a shithead.

“It's stretched all weird!! Its wings are all messed up and its foot is bigger than its head!”

Bucky is then forced to compare his foot to Bobby's head very rapidly. Bobby cries, but Bucky doesn't regret anything. 

*

During the war, everyone knows who has a soulmate, because they're the ones trading cigarettes and chocolate to get their hands on ink to reassure their loved ones. Bucky's no exception. Eventually the rest of the 107th ask about it, and Bucky's only too happy to brag about his soulmate's talent.

“He's the best artist I know,” Bucky brags. “Draws me a new picture every day, right here,” he says, tapping his left forearm where it's covered up by his sleeve. “A little something to keep me going and tell me he's okay.”

“Show us?” 

“Some other time,” Bucky says; “This one's personal.”

When they finally see the drawings, after so much anticipation, they're horrified.

“It's… interesting.” 

“His style is … unique.”

“He's terrible.”

Bucky glares at everyone and claps a hand protectively over the bird on his arm. “Fuck off.”

They just don’t understand art.

*

Then there's the first day Bucky gets actual, genuine compliments on the eagle sketched on his arm in black ink. There's no stretching anywhere; if anything, it's maybe a little _squished_. 

“What have you done now,” Bucky wonders, and he hates the drawing a little for how much it makes him worry.

For a little while, Bucky’s the one disparaging the art on his own arm.

*

Seventy years later, Steve's out on a mission and Bucky's at home in Stark tower, hard at work catching up on several decades of TV and movies. He's wearing a T-shirt so he can look repeatedly at the drawing on his arm. The drawback is that this means other people can also look at it.

“Hey, Buck, you draw that yourself? Because I can lend you the money for art classes, you know.”

Bucky glances again at the wobbly, deformed warrior on his right forearm. 

“Shut up, Stark,” he says.

“Or did somebody else draw it?” Barton asks. “You know, in our day and age, we consider the polite thing to do to exchange addresses. Assuming they're of age, of course.”

Bucky growls. He yanks the huge fluffy pink blanket (Darcy’s) off the back of the couch and wraps it around himself, hiding his arm from view. He glares out at the rest of the room from beneath his cape.

“My soulmate does not need art lessons,” he says.

*

Bucky feels totally vindicated when Steve puts on an art exhibition. He even does it under an alias, so it’s not just because he’s Captain America, it’s because his paintings are actually _good_. Bucky struts around the gallery with his chest puffed out because he’s just _so proud_ and happy for Steve that everyone finally acknowledges his talent. (Which Bucky has seen from day one.)

Later, Bucky makes Steve a fancy dinner (...okay, he orders in the food, but he sets the table and lights the candles himself) and presents him with a congratulatory gift.

“Aw, Buck, you didn’t have to do this,” Steve says. He frees the enormous giraffe from its wrapping paper, and then holds it at arm’s length by the neck, squinting at it. “You _really_ didn’t have to do this. Why a giraffe?”

“Because we’re celebrating your art, and a giraffe’s the first of your drawings I ever saw,” Bucky says. He crosses his arms over his chest when Steve starts laughing. “ _What?_ ”

“Bucky, I hate giraffes,” Steve says. “I never drew you one. The first thing I drew for you was a _dog_.”

“It was _not_ ,” Bucky says. “I remember it, it had a very long neck. Like a giraffe.”

“Because my drawings all got stretched out on you!” Steve says. “Oh, come on, you know it’s never my best work when I’m drawing on my skin, especially now I have to use my left hand.”

“Not you too!” Bucky says. “Don’t put yourself down, Steve, your drawings are all beautiful.”

Steve shakes his head and grins. “I’m glad you think so.”

“I _know_ so,” Bucky says. “Because they’re _yours_.


End file.
